28 11th February 2012 art market


Above: La Jour and La Nuit by Jean-Honoré Fragonard – $3.2m (£2.2m) at Christie’s Art of France sale. Fragonard’s putti give Art of France a much-needed lift


THE attempt by Christie’s to lure Old Master buyers into French territory by following their main paintings auction with 44 lots of 18th century French paintings in their Art of France sale on January 25 had mixed results, with only 25 of the pictures getting away. The auction included five lots by Jean-Honoré


Fragonard (1732-1806) one of which contributed over a third of the sale total. This was a pair of oils of putti at play in the sky in Le Jour and sleeping on


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by an imitator or student of Franz Hals (1581/5-1666), and was listed in the artist’s catalogue raisonné as ‘doubtful,’ despite bearing a monogram FH signature. It was only after Elizabeth Taylor died


that Hals scholars and conservators were able to view the painting in the flesh and were left with no doubt that it was an authentic Hals work. This surely would have pleased


the film star, who hung it above the fireplace in her Bel Air home and had it temporarily installed among other artworks when in hospital in 1956. With its re-attribution, the 2ft 6in x


2ft 2in (78 x 66cm) oil, which previously would have been worth about $100,000, was estimated at $700,000-$1m. On the day multiple bidders in the


room and on the phone battled for four minutes before it went over the phone at $1.8m (£1.2m). Some mystery surrounded a work by


Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), A Rearing Stallion, a 3ft 7in by 3ft 9in (1m x 1.1m) oil on canvas depicting a horse without a rider or saddle. Fully attributed to the Flemish master


in 1999 and dated to 1620-3, some members of the trade felt that even if it was a Van Dyck, it was not a very attractive one. It sold less than four years ago at


Christie’s London and reappeared with a catalogue symbol indicating that Christie’s had a financial stake in it,


Above left: The Virgin Annunciate by Simone Martini – $3.6m (£2.4m) at Sotheby’s. Above right: Madonna and Child with the Young Baptist, Saint Francis receiving the stigmata in the distance by Botticelli and his workshop – $4m (£2.7m) at Sotheby’s.


leading to the belief that the last buyer did not follow through with payment of their £2.7m ($4m) bid. This time round, it sold below estimate


at $2.2m (£1.5m) to a UK collector, prompting one dealer to surmise, “somebody lost a lot of money”. Consignments from important private


collections are key to the success of any Old Master sale, and at Sotheby’s the highlight came from the estate of Lady Forte, wife of the late entrepreneur and hotelier Lord Charles Forte. Following the November sale at


Christie’s in London of Lord Forte’s collection of LS Lowry paintings, this was Venice, A View of the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo… by Canaletto (1697-1768), which was last seen on the market in 1986 when the couple purchased it at Christie’s London at £240,000 ($354,000). The 23in x 3ft 1in (60 x 95cm) oil on


canvas resembles a view of the Redentore painted for the 4th Duke of Bedford, which today hangs in Woburn Abbey. Probably painted in 1747-55 while Canaletto was living in England,


Sotheby’s work shows how the painter reworked earlier scenes of Venice to improve their composition. Sotheby’s specialist Christopher


Apostle said: “In this case there was a large and impressive ship in the right hand side, which balanced the classical church on the left and gave the painting a great sense of depth and space.” It sold at the low $5m (£3.4m)


estimate to a European collector. Sotheby’s sale saw numerous new


records, including the double-estimate $4.3m (£2.9m) bid by a collector on the


clouds in La Nuit. Both panels measured 2ft 6in x 4ft 10½in (81cm x 1.5m), and were dated to around 1770, when it was popular to install such decorative paintings above doorways in the elaborate boiserie panelling then fashionable in Parisian townhouses. They showed the influence of Fragonard’s master,


François Boucher, but also exemplified how Fragonard re-imagined the decorative painting genre, stripping his subjects of traditional mythological narratives.


Le Jour and La Nuit have not been exhibited since


1953 and had been with the consignor for half a century. They drew strong competition and were knocked down above estimate to an American collector at $3.2m (£2.2m). Christie’s had higher hopes for Fragonard’s The Good


Mother but bidding did not get off the ground and it failed to sell at the $5m-$7m estimate. Three other Fragonards were also bought in.


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